Wine Profile: Château Beauséjour

I think the only way to begin this profile of Château Beauséjour is with a little clarification. There are, perhaps unsurprisingly, a number of domaines in Bordeaux, and further afield, that go by the name of Château Beauséjour. There is only one that carries the permanent suffix of Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse, however, and it is this particular Beauséjour that is the subject of this profile.

The domaine with its suffix was born in the 19th century when the original Château Beauséjour was divided between a brother and sister. The brother’s half was the origin of what we know today as Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, while the sister’s half retained the original name of Château Beauséjour. It has been to avoid confusion between the two halves of the estate (which was surely a problem early on, before the Bécot family arrived, when both châteaux were known simply as Beauséjour) and of course with all the other châteaux of the same name, that the héritiers suffix entered common usage.

This profile explores the history and modern story of Château Beauséjour, and because of the shared origins it has much in common, to begin with at least, with my profile of Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, so if you have read that profile in the last five minutes the next few paragraphs are going to feel very familiar. I begin first with the origins of the estate, which lie with a religious order tending vines in the shadow of theÉglise St Martin on the edge of St Emilion.

Origins

The estate we know today as Château Beauséjour was once part of the much grander (and larger) Beauséjour estate, long since divided, which had a history that spanned many centuries. Its origins lay in the Middle Ages, when the land was in the ownership of the monks of St Martin, monks who also tended the vines in what would one day be the vineyard of Château Canon, the two domaines neighbouring one another, right next to the church of St Martin de Mazerat. During the 17th century, however, the ascetics relinquished control of their vineyards, and one particular lieu-dit named Peycoucou, a name rather romantically thought to be derived from the singing of the cuckoos (coucou) on the hill (puy), was acquired by the aristocratic Gères family. It is therefore with the Gères family that the story of Château Beauséjour begins.

The Gères family have an enviable history; I have documented the ancestry of many noble families in my Bordeaux and Loire profiles, but I recall none that can directly trace their bloodline back as far as the 11th century. The line began, as far as records tell us at least, with Jean de Gère (1021 – 1100), seigneur of Saint-Gemme, who was an impressive 79 years old at the time of his death. It was Arnaud Guillaume de Gère(born 1397) who settled in Camarsac, and his son Bertrand married Catherine de Canteloup, dame of Camarsac, in 1450. Thus the family held the seigneurie of Camarsac, in the Entre-Deux-Mers, for many years afterwards. With the arrival of subsequent generations other seigneuries, including Sayes, Tauzia, Maurion and Maubousquet came into the fold.

André de Carle-Trajet

Thus it was that on June 10th 1684 Jean Jacques de Gères (born 1648) was married to Jeanne David, the union producing three children. The youngest of this trio wasJeanne de Gères (1700 – c.1767), dame of Camarsac, and the eighteenth generation of the family since Jean de Gère, mentioned above. On November 24th 1722 in St Emilion she was married to François V de Carles (c.1680 – c.1767), an ecuyer andseigneur of Petit Val. The de Carles family were clearly no less ennobled that the de Gères clan; Jeanne’s new father-in-law, François IV de Carles, was not only seigneurof Figeac but also Maire Perpétuel of St Emilion, an office bestowed upon him by King Louis XIV in 1694.

François V and Jeanne had seven children, mostly sons, and it was the eldest Jacques de Carles (1724 – 1803) who appears to have inherited the estate in St Emilion. And it was Jacques, a military officer who held first the rank of maréchal de camp, and thengénéral, who renamed the property Beauséjour in 1787. Despite the family’s noble standing, the Revolution seems to have passed without any challenge to their ownership of the estate. Nevertheless, the route of subsequent inheritance was a problem. Jacques had married Marie Rosaline Vacher (1773 – 1868) but the union had not produced any children, perhaps not surprising as it appears that his wife was nearly fifty years his junior, and so there was no obvious heir. Upon Jacques’ death the estate was therefore passed to Guillaume Arnaud André de Carle-Trajet (died 1825),seigneur of Peyrat. It is often written that André, as he is referred to, was a cousin of Jacques, although in truth the relationship was rather more distant than that. The two did share an ancestor, but it was at least four generations previous (five in the case of André), the great great grandfather of Jacques de Carles, François II de Carles(c.1571 – c.1654).

So André was a very distant ‘cousin’ indeed, but perhaps he was simply the most suitable candidate to take on the running of the estate. He is, of course, probably best remembered best for his long but not wholly successful tenure of Château Figeac. Even so, he was also proprietor of the Beauséjour estate for more than two decades, and so he made his mark here too. But in 1823 he was forced to sell Beauséjour, in order to pay off the debts he had accrued, and thus after more than two centuries in the hands of this noble family, the de Carles era came to an end.

Pierre-Paulin Ducarpe

The estate was purchased for the sum of 32,000 francs by a local pharmacist,Monsieur Troquart (possibly Charles Troquart), and this gentleman was still apparently at the helm when the property was listed in the 1850 edition of Cocks et Féret. It was classed as a premier cru, and was placed very near the top of the listing behindChâteau Bel-Air de Marignan, Château Mondot (in the possession of the Troplong family but yet to be so named) and Château Franc-Mayne. Viticulture at this time was clearly long established, as there were already 14 hectares of vines planted, and said vineyard was turning out 30 tonneaux (about 120 modern-day barriques) per annum. Troquart ensured production would remain at a good level when he augmented the vineyard with the purchase of the nearby Domaine de Saint Martin.

In truth, however, by the time the 1850 edition was published it was already out of date. The estate had been sold by Troquart in 1848 to Pierre-Paulin du Carpe (born 1811), not infrequently written as Ducarpe, a notaire who lived in St-Pey-de-Castets who is often described as a cousin of Troquart. By the time the 1868 Cocks et Féret was published the property was listed fifth among the premiers crus, behind four illustrious names, Château Bel-Air, Château Troplong-Mondot, Château Canon and Château Ausone. The estate was still in the hands of Pierre-Paulin Ducarpe at this time, and it was noted that he had worked hard to improve the vineyard, which was clearly still enjoying a good reputation. It had also grown in size just a little, as it was now up to 15 hectares of vines.

Pierre-Paulin Ducarpe is a very significant figure in the history of Château Beauséjour, because it was he that divided the estate into the two halves that exist today, having taken the carving knife to the Beauséjour vineyards in 1869. This seems to have been prompted by the marriage of his son, on June 8th that year. Even so his daughter seems to have taken on the more impressive part of the domaine; Louise Caroline Ducarpe (some sources say she was named Madeleine Ducarpe) received half of the vineyard plus the château and associated buildings. Caroline (as it seems she was known) had taken the name Duffau-Lagarrosse, having married Doctor Calixte Duffau-Lagarosse, and thus Château Beauséjour-Duffau-Lagarosse was born. Pierre-Paulin’s son, Léopold Ducarpe (born 1839), took the other half, and it was this vineyard that was the nascent Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, although at the time it was known as Château Beauséjour-Ducarpe.

In the ensuing years both halves of the Ducarpe family established independent reputations for their two new estates. Looking specifically at the half that remained withLouise Caroline, the 1883 Cocks et Féret lists this fourth among the premiers crus, directly behind Château Bel-Air, Château Ausone and her brother’s portion of the vineyard, which were listed first, second and third respectively. Both estates were, at this time, turning out 18 tonneaux of wine per annum; presumably each were still working with half the original estate, somewhere between 7 and 8 hectares apiece. Perhaps only naturally, this declined in the ensuing years as phylloxera took hold, production falling to 15 tonneaux on both estates in 1886, but by 1908 this had recovered, and was now up to 20 tonneaux per annum. Despite the two estates seemingly being on an equal footing, however, it is clear that the authors held a preference for Léopold’s section (that which would be Château Beau-Séjour Bécot), as it was the subject of a half-page missive including a note on all the medals the wines had won, rather than Louise Caroline’s section, which did not receive such handsome treatment. This preference was carried right through to the 1920s, when in 1922 the authors of Cocks et Féret once again rank Louise Caroline’s portion lower that Léopold’s.

Les Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse

Leaving the vines of Léopold now, about which I give much more detail in my profile of Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, I will follow exclusively the section of the estate that came into the hands of the Duffau-Lagarrosse family. The subsequent line of inheritance is now quite straightforward, superficially at least, because the estate has remained in the hands of this family right through to modern times. And although the estate remains, officially at any rate, Château Beauséjour, it is often described as Beauséjour (héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse) or even just Beauséjour (hDL)

Doctor Calixte Duffau-Lagarrosse and Louise Caroline Ducarpe had a son, who like his father was also a doctor. This was Louis Duffau-Lagarrosse (1866 – 1909), who married Edith Marchadier (1872 – 1947) in December 1896. Louis and Edith had three children; there was the eldest Pierre (1897 – 1980), the second-born Marie-Louise(1901 – 1967) and the youngest Valentine (born 1904). Valentine married and had two daughters but she did not match the activities of her siblings in this respect, both of whom ended up with many children and grandchildren. It would seem to be brother and sister Pierre and Marie-Louise who played the largest roles in the running of the domaine.

Pierre and Marie-Louise Duffau-Lagarrosse

Both of the siblings married, Pierre to Marie de Masgontier in 1922, and they had three sons, these being Louis (born 1924), Jean (born 1925) and Bernard (born 1927). All three sons married, producing children of their own, making for a complicated family tree, but it seems to be the middle son, Jean Duffau-Lagarrosse, who is most relevant in tracing a line down to those who currently run the estate. Like his father and grandfather he too was a doctor, and in 1953 he married Thérèse Redaud, a cousin. Together they had five children, Hélène (born 1955), Bruno (1956 – 1981), Vincent(born 1957), Denis (born 1958) and Véronique (born 1960). Of these, it is Vincent who is involved in the running of the domaine today.

The cousin Thérèse Redaud was a daughter of Pierre’s sister Marie-Louise Duffau-Lagarrosse, who in 1923 had married Fortuné Redaud (1892 – 1966), the director of the Banque de France. They had six children, namely Louis (1924 – 1947), Michel(1926 – 1983), the aforementioned Thérèse (born 1927), Anne Marie (born 1932),Jacques (born 1934) and finally Bernadette (born 1940). Many of these offspring produced children of their own, but perhaps the most significant in this respect wasJacques, who married Jeanne Aline Boulot in 1956. They subsequently had five children, of which the youngest Christophe Redaud (born 1966) is actively involved in running the domaine alongside the aforementioned Vincent Duffau-Lagarrosse.

It was when the estate was under the direction of the siblings Pierre and Marie-Louise that the first St Emilion classification was drawn up, in 1955, and Château Beauséjourwas ranked as a premier grand cru classé (level B), a position from which it has never shifted since. Fortunately for the Duffau-Lagarrosse family this ranking came just before the great frost of 1956, during which most of the vines were wiped out, and almost the entire vineyard was replanted. Shortly afterwards, in order to facilitate the trouble-free inheritance of the estate (very likely to be a problem with such a large family), the Société Civile du Château Beauséjour Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse was created by Pierre and Marie-Louise, thereby prevented the domaine being divided between too many owners, and of course avoiding the very punitive inheritance taxes as well.

Modern Times

In 1983 a new régisseurJean-Michel Dubos was appointed, and it was about this time that Bernard Ginestet visited the estate, as he describes in St Emilion (Jacques Legrand SA, 1988). At this time the vineyard was 6.8 hectares, a figure that does not really seem to have changed since the division of the property during the 19th century. The vineyard was half Merlot, with one-quarter each Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, and the consultant was none other than Michel Rolland.

Time has moved on, however, and the domaine today remains a family-owned company, headed up by the cousins Vincent Duffau-Lagarrosse and Christophe Redaud, who took on responsibility for the running of Château Beauséjour in 2006. At this time the old régisseur departed, and it was the perfect opportunity for them to begin a revitalisation of the domaine. Perhaps the most significant act in achieving this came in 2009, when they engaged the services of Nicolas Thienpont and Stéphane Derenoncourt in the running of the estate and to advise on the making of the wine.

Château Beauséjour: Vineyards

The domaine is to be found directly west of the town of St Emilion, on the road out towards Château Angélus. It is overlooked somewhat by the adjacent Église St Martin, with its rather imposing graveyard (indeed, some of the cellars of Château Beauséjourare tunnelled through the limestone that likes beneath the graveyard). Château Canonalso sits just above the estate. The associated Château Beau-Séjour Bécot lies a few hundred metres to the north, set back from the road a little. The lie of the land makes this latter estate difficult to spot, but this is certainly not the case for Château Beauséjour, which sits directly on the side of the road.

The 6.8 hectares of vines are largely located on the slopes around the château, whereas those on the plateau above tend to belong to Château Beau-Séjour Bécot. Most are on the same side of the road as the château, although there are a couple of parcels in the Mazerat sector on the opposite side of the road. They largely have a south- and southwest-facing aspect which is beneficial, in that the ground is naturally well-drained and the vines are nicely shielded from winds coming from the north. At the top of the slope the soils rest on the very desirable Calcaire à Astéries, lower down the Molasses du Fronsadais, with colluvial slip at the foot of the slope. The superficial soils are a mix of both alluvial and wind-blown sands, degraded limestone and clay. This detailed understanding of the vineyard and terroir comes from a land survey carried out after Nicolas Thienpont’s appointment in 2009.

Although during the 1980s the varieties were 50% Merlot and 25% each of the two Cabernets, this is set to change following the aforementioned survey. Some Merlot has been pulled up and the land replanted with Cabernet Franc, and the Cabernet Sauvignon – which reportedly never gave satisfactory results – has similarly been replaced. As a consequence the plantings of Cabernet Franc, which had shrunk to perhaps 20% of the vineyard, now account for more like 30%. The Cabernet Sauvignon has all gone, and so what remains – the other 70% – is all Merlot. The propagation of Cabernet Franc has been achieved using sélection massale, and I think we can expect to see plantings creep up a little more in the immediate future.

The vines are pruned in the double Guyot fashion, the yields controlled by bud-rubbing and green harvesting, sometimes making several passes through the vines not only during the summer when the fruit really is ‘green’, but also later, as harvest approaches, removing any less than perfect berries. As for the vigour of the vine this is directed into the fruit during the summer months by the removal of side shoots. The work in the vines is not officially organic, although the majority of methods employed by Nicolas are in fact organic.

Château Beauséjour: Wines

The vineyard only requires three days to complete the harvest, nevertheless picking is spread out firstly because the different terroirs may result in some parcels ripening before others, and secondly because of the two different varieties planted. Thus the harvest may be spread out over several weeks in the search for the most precise level of ripeness.

The freshly harvested berries are sorted twice and destemmed, before being lifted by forklift so that they may be emptied into the concrete vats by gravity rather than by pump. The fermentation is the result of naturally present yeasts, is controlled to 28-30ºC, and the maceration lasts for up to two weeks, with some remontage and pigeageto aid extraction along the way. The malolactic fermentation takes place in barrel, racked for the first time a few months later, before being transferred down to the barrel cellar, excavated from the limestone, to rest. The élevage last 18 months in total.

The grand vin is Château Beauséjour, the second wine Croix de Beauséjour. The total production in the order of 25-30,000 bottles per annum.

Of all the premier grand cru classé châteaux in St Emilion I think it was Château Beauséjour that I came to last. It was as if the proprietors weren’t really that interested. The wines never appeared at tastings alongside Château Beau-Séjour Bécot and the other premier peers, and so while I got to grips with many of the wines of St Emilion Château Beauséjour wasn’t one of them. Then two things changed. First, I began a decade ago travelling to Bordeaux more regularly, not just during the primeurs but at other times of the year, allowing me to broaden my tasting experience a little. Second,Vincent Duffau-Lagarrosse and Christophe Redaud took the helm in 2006, and in 2009 they engaged the services of Nicolas Thienpont and Stéphane Derenoncourt. This meant that the wines started turning up at a number of tastings, such as Derenoncourt’s La Grappe tasting, where I have encountered the wines several times, and more recently I have tasted the wine at Château Pavie-Macquin, a reflection of the fact that Nicolas Thienpont consults here.

Having said that I still don’t have a broad experience of these wines, having taken in only a handful of vintages tasted during the last few years, including 2005, 2010 and 2014. The 2010 vintage, tasted at the primeurs, is potentially superior to the 2005, and the 2014 is on a similar level, which suggests to me that perhaps getting Thienpont and Derenoncourt on board has been a good decision. I will, however, endeavour to taste more from this estate in the future, to see for certain whether or not this is really the case.